Health

Tyler Bush, manager of The Vapor Bar in Grapevine, Texas, puffs on an electronic cigarette. "Vaping" is an alternative to tobacco smoking, and customers can pick liquids with their preferred flavors and nicotine levels. (Max Faulkner/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT)

That's why she joined a growing number of tobacco addicts who switched to "vaping," the process of inhaling a nicotine-carrying vapor dispensed by electronic cigarettes.

"Most smokers don't want to quit," she said. "They're just tired of being treated like second-class citizens."

So many smokers have switched that Hamel opened The Vapor Bar in Grapevine, Texas. It's her second store and one of a handful of shops in the Dallas area that specialize in high-end electronic cigarettes and the liquids they dispense.

Despite the name, Hamel's shop isn't a bar. But it is a place where people can relax and sample up to 90 vapor flavors before deciding whether they want to buy.

Electronic cigarette vapors not only satisfy the physical nicotine addiction, but also the psychological addiction, said Mike Wright, founder of North Texas Vapers.

"Two kinds of people are addicted to smoking," he said. "One kind is addicted to nicotine; the others are addicted to the oral sensation."

Hamel added that switching to an e-cigarette provides an alternative to tobacco smoke that eliminates the tar and thousands of chemicals contained in cigarettes.

That's one of the reasons vaping is better than cigarette smoking, said Dr. Glenn Hardesty, D.O., an emergency medicine physician at Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital.

"In a perfect world, it would be great not to have any nicotine at all," he said.

But for someone who's determined to ingest nicotine, e-cigarettes are better if for no other reason than the absence of second-hand smoke, Hardesty said.

"The dangers to children in secondhand smoke are clear," he said. "Children's asthma can often be traced back to or worsened by exposure to tobacco smoke at home."

The liquids sold in The Vapor Bar contain whatever level of nicotine a customer wants and are tested before they're sold, Hamel said.

Nothing is sold to anyone younger than 18, she added.

The products are not subject to Food and Drug Administration regulations, according to a December 2010 federal court ruling.

However, the FDA intends to propose a regulation that would extend the agency's authority to cover products that are similar to tobacco, said FDA spokeswoman Jennifer Haliski.

"Further research is needed to assess the potential public health benefits and risks of electronic cigarettes and other novel tobacco products," she said.

Unfortunately, some e-cigarettes likely wouldn't get FDA approval if tested, Wright said. That's part of the reason he formed North Texas Vapers, starting the club about seven months ago as an online information forum.

It was a way not only to connect the curious with providers of higher-quality e-cigarettes and vapors in the region, but also to educate people on making their own vapors, Wright said.

"We ended up finding out that about 250 people in the Metroplex were vaping, so why not get together to do it?" he said.

Meeting monthly in sports bars and other places, North Texas Vapers is constantly adding people to its social network, Wright said.

One recent addition is his wife, Sharon, who had smoked cigarettes for 12 years. She decided to switch after meeting Hamel at her store.

"We spent four hours in The Vapor Bar letting her try different flavors, finding something that made her happy," Wright said. "She likes flavors that I don't like, and I like flavors that someone else wouldn't like."

Some vapers prefer their vapors sans nicotine, Wright said.

"Some people in the group love the flavors but have no nicotine in their e-liquids," he said.

Hamel said her 30 milliliter bottles will last the average vaper 10 to 15 days and cost about $17 each.

The e-cigarette kits-a rechargeable battery pack, a vaporizing chamber that must be replaced occasionally and a bottle of liquid-start at about $100.

Once established in vaping, even with buying multiple flavors and replacement vaporizing chambers, someone who's smoking a pack to a pack and a half a day will see a $200 to $250 per month habit reduced to about $50 per month, Hamel said.

"We've had a couple of customers go back to cigarettes," she said. "Usually it's because they didn't get the replacement parts in time or ran out of liquid. But you know what, they always come back."

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